National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

The tornado outbreak of
October 24, 2001, was the most significant tornado outbreak
ever to hit this area (see map below) in October.It was our largest outbreak
in over 27 years!

The Northern Indiana National Weather Service office's area of
responsibility

...Across the CWA...
Ten tornadoes spun across the Northern Indiana National Weather Service office's
area of responsibility (or, "County Warning Area", abbreviated "CWA"),
ranging in strength from F0 to F3 on the Fujita Scale. This is the largest
outbreak since April 3, 1974, when we encountered 16 tornadoes. The
Palm Sunday Outbreak on April 11, 1965 gave us 10 tornadoes.

The death in LaPorte County was the first tornado-related death
ever reported in the CWA in October. The last tornado-related death in the
CWA was in Steuben County on March 27, 1991 when an F3-strength tornado swept
through. The last one before that was back on March 12, 1976, as an F1
tornado briefly touched down in New Haven, Indiana.

In January 2002, a man died from injuries sustained when the
Crumstown tornado knocked a wall onto him on the west side of South Bend.

After this year's outbreak, the next largest October tornado
outbreaks occurred on October 8, 1992 (four tornadoes, of F1 and F2 strength, in
Grant, Huntington, and Allen Indiana counties), and, coincidentally, October 24,
1967 (four tornadoes, of F1 and F2 intensity, in Elkhart, Kosciusko, and St
Joseph Indiana counties).

A tornado that passed from LaPorte County into St Joseph County
(Indiana) had a (skipping) path length of 35 miles, a tornado that traveled from
Marshall across Kosciusko into Noble County stayed on the ground for 39 miles, a
twister that moved from Van Wert into Putnam counties traveled 32 miles, and a tornado that went from St Joseph County (Indiana) into Berrien,
Cass, and St. Joseph counties (Michigan) had a path length of 47 miles
(intermittent). All of these tornadoes
beat the old October tornado path length record of 14 miles set in Steuben
County on October 1, 1986.

The tornado in Hillsdale County was the 500th tornado recorded
in the present-day area of responsibility of the Northern Indiana office since
1834.

October tornadoes in the CWA (all times are EST):

Date

Strength

Location

Time

Killed

Injured

Width

Length

October 6, 1955

F1

Wells County

7:30pm

0

0

October 24, 1967

F2

Elkhart County

5:10pm

0

0

October 24, 1967

F1

Elkhart County

5:30pm

0

0

October 24, 1967

F2

Kosciusko County

5:40pm

0

5

October 24, 1967

F1

St Joseph County, Indiana

5:40pm

0

0

October 23, 1971

F1

Cass County, Indiana

3:30pm

0

0

October 5, 1978

F1

Lagrange County

3:20pm

0

0

October 1, 1979

F0

Wabash County

7:10pm

0

0

October 1, 1979

F0

Whitley County

7:30pm

0

0

October 6, 1979

F0

Berrien County

11:02am

0

0

60 yards

brief touchdown

October 6, 1979

F0

LaPorte County

1:36pm

0

0

October 17, 1981

F0

Marshall County

10:50pm

0

0

150 yards

2 miles

October 1, 1986

F0

Steuben County

4:20pm

0

0

10 yards

14 miles

October 1, 1986

F0

Williams County

4:46pm

0

0

10 yards

2 miles

October 16, 1988

F2

Elkhart County

4:23pm

0

0

40 yards

6 miles

October 8, 1992

F1

Grant County

5:25pm

0

0

20 yards

1 mile

October 8, 1992

F1

Huntington County

5:37pm

0

0

20 yards

4 miles

October 8, 1992

F1

Huntington County

5:45pm

0

0

20 yards

2 miles

October 8, 1992

F2

Allen County, Indiana

6:00pm

0

9

20 yards

2 miles

October 24, 2001

F2

LaPorte and St Joseph Indiana

3:15pm

1

0

1760 yards

35 miles (skipping)

October 24, 2001

F3

St Joseph Indiana, Berrien, Cass
Michigan

3:50pm

1

0

1320 yards

47 miles

October 24, 2001

F1

Marshall, Kosciusko, and Noble

4:15pm

0

14

150 yards

39 miles

October 24, 2001

F1

St Joseph Indiana and Elkhart

4:30pm

0

0

50 yards

2.5 miles

October 24, 2001

F2

St Joseph Indiana and Elkhart

4:30pm

0

2

1320 yards

7.5 miles

October 24, 2001

F1

St Joseph Michigan

4:40pm

0

1

400 yards

4 miles

October 24, 2001

F2

Noble, DeKalb, and Steuben

5:00pm

0

0

440 yards

12.5 miles

October 24, 2001

F1

St Joseph Michigan

5:10pm

0

0

400 yards

5 miles

October 24, 2001

F1

Hillsdale

6:00pm

0

0

60 yards

2 miles

October 24, 2001

F3

Van Wert and Putnam

6:35pm

0

0

1320 yards

32 miles

...F3-strength twisters hit
Saint Joseph County Indiana and Putnam County Ohio...
The tornado that produced F3 damage in St Joseph County was the first
F3-strength tornado ever recorded in the CWA in October. Two hours and
forty-five minutes later another F3 tornado struck, in Van Wert and Putnam
counties (the tornado was not yet F3 strength in Van Wert County). These
were the strongest tornadoes observed in the CWA since February 18, 1992, when an F4
tornado struck southern Van Wert County, Ohio.

...Across Indiana, Ohio, and
Michigan...The F3 tornadoes in St Joseph County Indiana and Putnam County Ohio
were the strongest tornadoes seen in these three states since an F4 tornado hit Greenfield in Hancock
County, Indiana, on June 11, 1998. Also that day, F3 tornadoes struck
Greentown (Howard County, Indiana) and Cumberland (Marion County, Indiana).

Only four other October tornadoes have resulted in loss of life in
these three states:
October 2, 1880: An F3 tornado killed 2 people along its 15-mile-long path
across the Michigan counties of Barry, Eaton, and Calhoun.
October 11, 1912: One person was killed in Gratiot County, Michigan.
October 11, 1954: An F3 tornado resulted in two fatalities in Johnson
County, Indiana during its five miles on the ground.
October 1, 1977: One life was lost in Harrison County, Indiana.

Because no F4 or F5 tornadoes have ever been recorded in these
three states in October, the F3's in St Joseph County and Putnam County this year tied for the
strongest October tornadoes on record. The other F3 tornadoes were: